Review on How the king of Elfhame learned to hate stories By Emma

Review on How the king of Elfhame learned to hate stories by Holly Black

Before Cardan was a cruel prince or a wicked king he was a Fearie child with a heart of stone. In this illustrated addition to the New York Times bestselling Folk of the Air trilogy we return to the captivating world of Elfhame. In 'How the king of Elfhame learned to hate stories' Holly Black reveals a deeper look into the dramatic life of our high king Cardan. We get stories from his life before events in the cruel prince, familiar stories in his perspective during the main story in the trilogy and stories after the events in Queen of Nothing. 

“A heart of stone can still be broken”

Holly Black’s Folk of the Air trilogy is one of my favorite series and How the king of Elfhame learned to hate stories is probably one of the prettiest books I own. We are not only getting more Cardan in this book, we are also getting full coloured illustrations inside the book. The illustrations are absolutely gorgeous and the book comes alive because of it. 

“He had always been awful. Now he was just worse”

How the king of Elfhame learned to hate stories is the novella everyone has been waiting for. And it felt good to go back to this world. We met Cardan in the Folk of the Air trilogy and now we get to know him better reading about his youth and upbringing. It made it easier to understand how he became the cruel prince and wicked king. My heart broke for him reading his background story. 

We also get to read familiar scenes from the Folk of Air series but this time from Cardan’s perspective and this was what every fan was waiting for. 

 “Jude, Cardan thought, hating even the shape of her name. Jude.”

The writing style is slightly different from her Folk of the Air trilogy and has a fairytale feel to it. It made it easier and lighter to read. Cardan’s time in the mortal world is so funny and was everything I had wished for. I mean who wouldn’t want to read about a high king of Faerie trying bubble tea. 

The only negative point I can think about is that I was sad that there weren’t more scenes between Jude and Cardan instead of Nicasia, Locke en Valerian. On the other side I understand this because those three are a big part of Cardan’s story, but I wished there were more Jude and Cardan scenes. 

“Everyone finds different lessons in stories, I suppose, but here’s one. Having a heart is terrible, but you need one anyway”

If you are a big fan of the Folk and the Air trilogy is definitely a must-read and I don’t think you will be surprised when I say this book gets four crosses.